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Get Paid

2020-05-29 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, community lore

Hank, in favor of creators getting paid, says everyone should know what is being sold: star power sells movies, but people won't follow celebrities to Quibi, and when creators are paid to move to Mixer or Spotify exclusives they are selling their audience, which worries him most for podcasts.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Big checks to move communities; the old star model, from Andy in Parks and Rec to Jurassic World

  • ★★★ Hank, who sees himself as a creator advocate, favors people getting paid but says they should know for sure what they are being paid for. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank describes the old model: a star builds a career, audiences gain affinity and see movies because the star is in them, as Chris Pratt went from Parks and Rec to Peter Quill to Jurassic World. — 00:00:00 · celebrity
  • ★★ Hank calls the star model fine: it may crowd out other actors, but it is how things work, everyone does what they want, and a familiar face is a nice door into a movie. — 00:00:46 · celebrity

00:01:15 — Quibi spends over a billion dollars on content but misunderstands celebrity

  • ★★ Hank says Jeffrey Katzenberg and company spent over a billion dollars on content for Quibi, a new platform of quick video bites under 10 minutes long. — 00:01:15
  • ★★★ Hank says Quibi misunderstands celebrity: a star may inform which movie people see, but people won't follow a celebrity to a new platform because they don't care much about celebrities. — 00:01:15 · celebrity

00:01:44 — Creators paid to move their audiences: Ninja to Mixer, and Spotify's exclusive podcasts taking content out of an open ecosystem

  • ★ Hank doesn't think Quibi is necessarily bad: he favors billionaires spending their money, it hurts no one, and maybe he's wrong and it will succeed. (hedged) — 00:01:44
  • ★★★ Hank is more ambivalent when creators with deep audience relationships are paid to move everything to a new platform, not for a better audience experience: they are selling their audience, which needs real care. — 00:02:11
  • ★★ Hank says Ninja being paid to move to Mixer is about his audience: changing user behavior and buying market share with Microsoft's money, and drawing smaller creators who won't be paid. — 00:02:11
  • ★★★ Spotify's exclusive deals for Joe Rogan and Last Podcast on the Left worry Hank more: Twitch versus Mixer is Amazon versus Microsoft, but Spotify moves podcasts from an open ecosystem into a closed, company-owned one. — 00:02:58 · Amazon

00:03:27 — Be honest about what's being sold; John's TikTok

  • ★★★ Hank says these deals aren't always bad and creators sometimes must get paid, but creators and audiences should be honest about what is sold: talent, fame, influence, audience, power. — 00:03:27
  • ★★ Hank can't believe John made a TikTok, and already has way more followers there than Hank. (playful) — 00:03:27 · John Green, TikTok

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says the brothers have been wary whenever offered a chance to put their content somewhere new: leaving YouTube would be done to viewers and feel like betrayal. — video description · YouTube
  • ★★★ The description says Hank could not sell the community because he does not feel he owns it. — video description
  • ★★ In a comment John recalls Hank telling him that selling something is fine, but once you sell it you don't own it anymore. — creator comment · Hank Green

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: creator economy · Quibi

Also: People: Chris Pratt · Jeffrey Katzenberg · Joe Rogan · Ninja

Works: Jurassic World · Last Podcast on the Left · Parks and Recreation

Organizations: Amazon · Microsoft · Mixer · Spotify · TikTok · Twitch

Concepts: celebrity

Characters: Star-Lord

Only in the description or credits: All Star · YouTube

Also centred on creator economy: Still Riding a Big Wave that I Do not and Cannot Know · Hank's very messy post-cancer year of mistakes, meaning…

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